Family Blog

For Manuel and Philip the tests in written form for their exams are over. In exams in verbal from will be in two months and at the end of June the school will be over for them.


I will go this Saturday to Esslingen where I will celebrate together with my old school class 30 years "Abitur" (final secondary-school examinations). In the last weeks I scanned some of my old photos and slides. Some of the photos you can find in the Yahoo group abi80_sg, e.g. the excursion to London in 1979 (Studienfahrt London 1979). On one of the picture you can see Margareth Thatcher, to premier minister of Great Britain at that time.

The last two weeks Manuel and Philip were very busy with learning for their exams. And today the final secondary-school examinations (in German: "Abitur" or shortened "Abi") have started and will last till next Friday.

Good luck, Manuel and Philip!

Today was the first day this year where we could sit in the garden and have barbecue. This week there is still Eastern holiday but Manuel and Philip are learning for their school leaving examination. Next week on Thursday their tests will start.

Carmen has now her driver license and on Saturday we went shopping to the next super market. It was a strange feeling to sit on the co-drivers seat beside her but I think it was also a strange feeling for her not to have the driving instructor on board.

End of school is coming nearer. And Philip plans to go for one year as aupair to the USA. Last week he got the acceptance for New Jersey where he can go in August. Now he must again look for a valid visa.

Carmen had today her test for the driver licence. Although there were snow on the road she did it. Congratulations, Carmen.

Last Thursday we went for four days to Rome. When we started we did not know if we come back at Monday because there was a strike call of the pilots for this week. On Friday we decided to go to the Vatican by Metro but there was a strike of the public transportation. So we went to the Colosseum.

Rome has more churches and old temples than days in the year. We had a room near the "Stazinone Termine" (the central railway station) where we could reach most of the places of interest by walking. There are also a lot of museums and we were always tired when we came back to our accomodation in the evening.

On Monday we go back to the international airport. Fortunately our flight was not cancelled - only delayed for some hours. On the runway we had to wait again because all Alitalia machines were allowed to start before our machine .But at last we could start.

This afternoon Philip ask us if he can go to bed. Why so early? He wants to watch Super Bowl which will start here in Germany at midnight.

The new home page of fremantelboatschool.com.au from John Adams, a friend of my sister, is now online. I hope it's faster than the old one.

Here in Germany it is pretty cold now (about -15°C). And we have snow since Friday. Perhaps we wil have a white Christmas. But before we have to look for a Christmas tree...

Last sunday my sister from Australia visited us. She came together with her friend who has a boat school at Perth. He also has a web page fremantleboatschool.com.au (designed by a "web designer") and asked me what I think about it. The first thing I noticed: it takes a long long time till the site is loaded.

When I took a deeper look at the source of the website I saw the problem: the fish picture has a size of about 700 kB which is much too big. There were some other "time consuming" constructs in this webpage and I gave him some tips (and a prototype of a optimized web page) – let's see when this new design will be online.

Here in Gerlingen we had yesterday the first snow in this winter. And for the next week the weather forecast says it keeps cold – christmas will come soon...

from Manuel on YouTube

On Saturday Cordula celebrated her birthday. For this event the children and I had prepared a movie with different scenes from a "normal day" of Cordula's life. On the birthday party we simulated a kind of film festival where we showed this movie. One of the highlight of this festival was the laudation of Carmen. She was announed as famous actress after the movie and came in together with her brothers as bodyguards (they look really cool) to make a speech in Cordulas honour.

Another highlight were the "Blue(s) Bananas". Some of the neighbours had practiced a "Nurse Blues". They came in dressed as nurses (with one doctor) and sang a song about the life as nurse in a hospital - very impressive.

Manuel has his first solo part as tenor. He had been asked if he can sing on a wedding and this event was yesterday. Today he have to sing again with the Hymnus Choir.

Today there is the election of the Bundesttag. Philip and Manual have an invitation for the Election Results Party at the Landtag. I hope they will come not too late at home.

This week school has started again. For Manuel and Philip it will be the last year at school before they can start with a study. Then they have to choose what they want to study. Philip wants to study aerospace but Manuel does not know yet what to study.

In ten days there are the elections to the Bundestag here in Germany. For Manuel and Philip it is the first time they can participate. You have the choice between 27 parties but only 5 parties are member of the Bundestag at the moment. You have two votes - one to elect your local representative to the Bundestag and one to vote for a party list.

From Sunday on we spend a week in Berlin. On the first day we want to follow a guided tour but missed the German speaker. So we follow the international tour who was held by an American from Maine. Most of the explanations I understood and for the rest I asked Manuel and Philip.

20 years after the reunion of Germany and Berlin you see no longer the division between East and West. A short part the the Berlin Wall can be seen near Checkpoint Charly. When I was young I moved a few times from West Berlin to East Berlin because I have two aunts in both parts of Berlin. I remember that passing the border to the East side was terrible - you feel like a criminal when you see the many men in uniform, must show your passport and answer a lot of questions.

Nowadays you don't see any differences between East and West. And Berlin is an international city. When you go by the S-Bahn you can hear a lot of languages. And you have a lot of museums in there. Yesterday we were in the Jewish Museum where I was shocked about the personal stories of people during the Holocaust.

I was for two days on a board conference of the Java User Group Stuttgart. Yesterday I had to chance to fly for the first time in my life with a helicopter. It was a small helicopter, a Robinson R44, where you can feel the weather and each blast. It was a strange feeling when we lift up because it was a rainy and a little bit turbulent. The airport was near Mosbach and it was great to see the area from above. After 15 minutes the pilot flies back to the airport because the weather was too bad.